1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to medication dispensing systems and, more particularly, to a system and apparatus having a medication alarm, storage, and records archive.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use and design of partitioned medication receptacles that separate pills to be taken based on a day and/or time into discrete compartments disposed on a single housing is well known. Indeed, such receptacles are typically defined by a plurality of discrete compartments, each with separate access lids, all disposed in a single housing. One of such housings may include one or two compartments for each day of the week and enough total compartments to allow medication for an entire week or month to be stored therein and retrieved therefrom. Advantageously, an individual's medications for an extended period of time can be stored in a partitioned receptacle that allows medications solely for a particular desired moment can be retrieved without disturbing the other stored medications.
A problem which still exists, however, is that despite such organization and storage capability, conventional partitioned medication receptacles often lack the ability to be configured to provide interactive services appurtenant to the medication protocol of the user. Thus, there remains a need for a medication alarm, dispenser and records archive system and apparatus which could be programmed to provide a sensory alert to the user when it was time to take the medication. It would be helpful if such an interactive medication receptacle system was electronically configured at the time a medication was prescribed (or at the time the prescription was fulfilled) to provide such sensory alerts. It would be additionally desirable for such an interactive medication receptacle system to provide a visual user interface that could provide display not only alerts but additional information about the patient, including medical history.
The Applicant's invention described herein provides for a medication alarm, dispenser and records archive system and apparatus adapted to alert a user when it was time to take the medication in one of its discrete compartments. The primary components of Applicant's interactive medication receptacle system are a pill storage section, an interactive electronic section, and communications interface member. When in operation, the interactive medication receptacle system enables all pertinent information pertaining to a user's prescribed medication treatments to be provided to the user at relevant times. As a result, many of the limitations imposed by prior art structures are removed.